Sub-Saharan Africa needs $240-billion for the region to transition to a clean energy, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday. “We need grant funding to help us transition,” he said. “If we get the funding we will migrate far quicker to renewable energy.”
The International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) ‘Achievements of Energy Efficiency Appliance and Equipment Standards and Labelling Programmes’ report states that labelling electrical equipment according to energy performance helps consumers make informed buying decisions, leading to billions of dollars of savings on electricity and avoiding 300-million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year. “This is exciting news for South Africa, as the study echoes the experience that we have had with our local Energy Efficiency Standards and Labelling (EES&L) programmes,” says South African National Energy Development Institute (SANEDI) energy efficiency & corporate communications GM Barry Bredenkamp.
Envoys from some of the world’s richest nations met with South African cabinet ministers on Tuesday to discuss a climate deal that could see billions of dollars put toward ending the country’s dependence on coal. The delegation is trying to hammer out an agreement that can be announced at the COP26 climate talks, which start in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct. 31, two people familiar with the talks said. The discussions with South Africa — the world’s 12th-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — include representatives from the US, UK, Germany, France and the European Union.
The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) on Wednesday announced its support of the recent National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) decision to approve the Section 34 (of the Electricity Regulation Act) Determination for 2 500 MW of new nuclear energy. Necsa described this approval by Nersa as “a step in the right direction”, to ensure that nuclear energy would continue to be part of the country’s energy mix (in line with the Integrated Resource Plan 2020). “The approval of the 2 500 MW comes at a critical time when the South Africa economy needs resuscitation following the devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic,” affirmed Necsa board chairperson Dave Nicholls. “This will play a role in job creation which will assist in the dire state of unemployment in the country.”
A Just Transition Transaction (JTT) that enables South Africa to secure highly concessional finance from rich countries in return for accelerated decarbonisation would help create the fiscal space required to take such a programme forward, a new Meridian Economics study asserts. Released to coincide with the visit to South Africa of climate envoys from Europe, the UK and the US ahead of the upcoming COP26 gathering in Glasgow, Scotland, the study argues that such a transaction could yield interest savings of R100-billion over 25 years and unlock the R750-billion in investment needed to support the country’s transition from coal to renewables.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) began reviewing a $6.2-billion minerals-for-infrastructure deal with China that’s faced growing criticism since President Felix Tshisekedi came to power almost three years ago. Congo’s council of ministers agreed to create a commission to investigate “major legal, technical and financial problems observed in the collaboration agreement” between the two countries, according to minutes from the meeting published on the website of the prime minister’s office. The council asked the commission to present its findings in two weeks.
The State-owned Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) is aiming to convert a significant portion of a R24-billion investment pipeline into commitments following a steep fall in both approvals and disbursements during its Covid-afflicted 2020/21 financial year. The development finance institution reported that disbursements fell to R6.3-billion, from R8.4-billion in the prior year, while approvals slumped to only R5.4-billion from R9.5-billion.
Pan-African industrial parks developer Arise IIP has been awarded a carbon neutral certification for its Gabon special economic zone (SEZ). The certification provides a transparent third-party assessment of the SEZ’s carbon footprint and offsetting.
The Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) regulations gazetted by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) in December 2020 present opportunities for individuals and businesses in the energy sector, including young professionals, entrepreneurs and graduates in the engineering disciplines with the mindset to be a part of the energy efficiency solution, says Alliance Energy MD Vash Singh. Under the EPC regulations, buildings in South Africa need to have their energy performance assessed by an accredited party, which will issue an EPC that rates the building in terms of energy efficiency.
State-owned electricity utility Eskom says it is “not feasible” for the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to make a revenue determination, for implementation on April 1 2022, on the basis of a new methodology that has yet to be consulted or finalised. On September 24, Nersa published a consultation paper on a possible new price determination methodology in which it states that the “current revenue-based methodology has fallen short in providing stable prices”.
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